


Langstgiving

by taylor_tut



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Blind Character, Blind Lance (Voltron), Blindness, Exhaustion, Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insomnia, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Whump, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-06 22:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12827100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: A little oneshot about Lance experiencing Non-24-Sleep-Wake Disorder after an injury that leaves him blind.





	Langstgiving

Pidge steeled herself when she heard a rhythmic tapping coming from the hallway at 3:00 in the morning. Everyone else had gone to bed hours ago, but she’d woken up to an idea for a modification to the suits that she’d just  _had_  to write down, and once she’d started blueprinting it, she was too excited to put it away.

The tapping was getting quieter, like whoever was in the hallway was leaving toward the kitchen and training room.

Slowly, silently, she opened her door just a crack... 

To find that no one was there.

Keith opened his own door only a few seconds later, raising an eyebrow at Pidge.

“Was that you making all that racket?” he asked irritably. 

“No, but I heard it, too.” Picking up her bayard from its place beside her door, she nodded to Keith, who did the same, and both of them began to creep toward the sounds.

They rounded the corner to spot someone training on the bots with the lights off.

“Lance?” Pidge called, surprising him enough to throw off his game and make him roll an ankle, falling to the ground with a clatter. 

“End training sequence,” Keith barked, reaching around blindly for the lights while Pidge knelt down beside Lance.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake anyone up,” Lance apologized. 

“Are you okay?” Pidge asked, pressing on his ankle when he nodded, and raising an eyebrow when he winced. “This looks like it might be a mild sprain. I’m going to get you an ice pack.”

“What were you thinking, training alone in the middle of the night?” Keith demanded.

Lance sighed, equal parts embarrassed and frustrated. “I couldn’t sleep,” he explained, “so I come down here to train sometimes.”

“How often does this happen?” Keith asked. How often did Lance come down here and risk seriously injuring himself with no one the wiser?

“The trouble sleeping, or the night training?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Both.”

“Well... I’ve had trouble sleeping since... you know,” he motioned to his eyes, which stared unfocused and blankly ahead, just as they had ever since a bad blow to the head had severed one optic nerve and damaged the other so badly that it still hadn’t regained any sight, even shadows. “But I only train like this a few nights a week.”

Lance looked exhausted. “You haven’t been sleeping right since the injury?” Keith asked, dumbfounded. The paladins and the Alteans had all had hushed conversations about Lance’s moods seeming low, and his energy being depleted, but they’d chalked it up to the stress of dealing with a permanent, life-altering disability, and had decided to just let Lance know that they were all there if he needed to talk. 

Before he could ask anything else, Pidge returned with an ice pack. “I unlocked a pod,” she announced. “If you hop in now, you’ll be healed by tomorrow morning and you won’t even have to tell the others.” 

Lance smiled, but Keith wasn’t about to let him off that easy. 

“He says he hasn’t been sleeping since the blast,” he told Pidge. She contemplated for a minute, then nodded.

“Yeah, that makes sense,” she said. “You know how Allura and Coran are really strict about lights out at night and turning them on in the morning?” Keith nodded,and Lance seemed to be pretty invested in the explanation, too. “Coran told me that’s because brains are designed to wake up and fall asleep based on light cues.”

“Which Lance isn’t getting anymore,” Keith finished. 

“Exactly.” 

Lance sighed. “that’s why I feel so tired at random times in the day?” he asked, and Pidge nodded before remembering he couldn’t see her.

“Yeah, Lance,” she said sympathetically, “that’s probably why.”

Before they could give Lance a moment to take in the fact that this stupid war had taken away everything from his sight to his ability to even sleep, Keith started to haul him up to his feet. 

“We should get you into a pod,” he asserted. “It’ll heal your ankle, and give you some time to rest. When you wake up, we’ll figure out what to do about your sleep.”

Again, Lance smiled, squeezing Keith’s hand. “Thanks, Mullet.”

“And don’t think you’re off the hook for training alone,” he continued. “You’re still getting a lecture about that. But one thing at a time.”

Lance chuckled. “That’s fair enough,” he admitted, climbing into the healing pod. 

“Next time, don’t just deal with this stuff alone, okay?” Pidge reminded him before the door closed. “We’re a team. And we’re friends. We’ve got your back.” 

The door to the healing pod closed, and Lance dreamt of home in full color, unable to wipe away the few tears that slid down his cheeks at the thought that even if they returned to Earth, he’d never see home again.


End file.
